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Recent pace of change in human impact on the worlds ocean

Humans interact with the oceans in diverse and profound ways. The scope, magnitude, footprint and ultimate cumulative impacts of human activities can threaten ocean ecosystems and have changed over time, resulting in new challenges and threats to marine ecosystems. A fundamental gap in understanding how humanity is affecting the oceans is our limited knowledge about the pace of change in cumulative impact on ocean ecosystems from expanding human activities – and the patterns, locations and drivers of most significant change.

Comparing the roles of Pacific halibut and arrowtooth flounder within the Gulf of Alaska ecosystem and fishing economy

The fishing industry of the western and central regions of the coastal Gulf of Alaska (CGoA) directly employs over 17,000 people and processes fish with a wholesale value of US$618 million annually. Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) are a valued groundfish species because of the high quality of their flesh. In contrast, arrowtooth flounder (Atheresthes stomias) are much more abundant but of low value because their flesh degrades upon heating. Both are high trophic level predators but play different roles in the ecosystem because of differences in abundance and diet.

Expanding the Soy Moratorium to Brazil's Cerrado

The Cerrado biome in Brazil is a tropical savanna and an important global biodiversity hot spot. Today, only a fraction of its original area remains undisturbed, and this habitat is at risk of conversion to agriculture, especially to soybeans. Here, we present the first quantitative analysis of expanding the Soy Moratorium (SoyM) from the Brazilian Amazon to the Cerrado biome. The SoyM expansion to the Cerrado would prevent the direct conversion of 3.6 million ha of native vegetation to soybeans by 2050. Nationally, this would require a reduction in soybean area of approximately 2%.

Creating enabling conditions for managing trade-offs between food production and forest conservation in Africa Case studies from Ethiopia and Zambia

Food demand in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is projected to more than double between 2018 and 2050. Historically, increasing food demand has been met largely through agricultural expansion – but at the expense of forests and biodiversity. To better manage competing land-use objectives for agricultural production and forest conservation, SSA countries need to look beyond technological solutions. They must adopt holistic approaches suitable for their political, economic and social contexts.

Blue Growth Potential to Mitigate Climate Change through Seaweed Offsetting

Carbon offsetting—receiving credit for reducing, avoiding, or sequestering carbon—has become part of the portfolio of solutions to mitigate carbon emissions, and thus climate change, through policy and voluntary markets, primarily by land-based re- or afforestation and preservation [1, 2]. However, land is limiting, creating interest in a rapidly growing aquatic farming sector of seaweed aquaculture [3, 4, 5].

Opinion: Putting all foods on the same table: Achieving sustainable food systems requires full accounting

Spatial community structure of groundfish is conserved across the Gulf of Alaska

The mechanisms structuring patterns of diversity and community composition can be difficult to identify in large, open ecological systems. However, it is important to understand what drives these patterns at larger scales, especially in the face of climate change and other perturbations. The Gulf of Alaska (GOA) is an ideal study system because it has complex topography, climate-driven variability, and an on-going groundfish community survey.

The relationship of woody plant size and leaf nutrient content to large-scale productivity for forests across the Americas

1. Ecosystem processes are driven by both environmental variables and the attributes of component species. The extent to which these effects are independent and/or dependent upon each other has remained unclear. We assess the extent to which climate affects net primary productivity (NPP) both directly and indirectly via its effect on plant size and leaf functional traits. 2. Using species occurrences and functional trait databases for North and South America, we describe the upper limit of woody plant height within 200 x 200 km grid-cells.

The landscape of soil carbon data: Emerging questions, synergies and databases

Soil carbon has been measured for over a century in applications ranging from understanding biogeochemical processes in natural ecosystems to quantifying the productivity and health of managed systems. Consolidating diverse soil carbon datasets is increasingly important to maximize their value, particularly with growing anthropogenic and climate change pressures. In this progress report, we describe recent advances in soil carbon data led by the International Soil Carbon Network and other networks.

A comprehensive approach to analyzing community dynamics using rank abundance curves

Univariate and multivariate methods are commonly used to explore the spatial and temporal dynamics of ecological communities, but each has limitations, including oversimplification or abstraction of communities. Rank abundance curves (RACs) potentially integrate these existing methodologies by detailing species-level community changes.